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The following endgame, from Almasi vs Sanikidze, is becoming a real riddle. The position, after the 43th move by Almasi, is the following:

[fen "8/1N4k1/7p/4ppbP/4P3/1PP5/1K6/8 b - - 0 1"]

White King on b2 Knight on b7 pawns on b3 c3 e4 h5. Black to move King on g7 Bishop on g5 pawns on e5 f5 h6. Black to move.

Even on lichess.com evaluation goes up and down as far as depth 43(!) without reaching a clear verdict. With perfect play, is a win for White or a draw?

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  • Cross posted your question to talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77608
    – user27863
    Jul 3 at 10:45
  • I do not have access to talkchess.com
    – user27314
    Jul 3 at 22:32
  • To adreasthea What has being said to talkchess forum?
    – Stefano
    Jul 4 at 10:27
  • Why are there two downvotes ? This is quite an interesting endgame to analyse...
    – Evargalo
    Jul 5 at 9:46
  • Can you show what has been played in the game ? Analysing this to the end might be challenging...
    – Evargalo
    Jul 8 at 15:08
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I would say you gave yourself an answer. If a computer analysis with depth 43 does not find a clear solution, the game would end probably in a draw if both sides play perfectly. Nevertheless, this situation is extremely complicated to analyze for a human and therefore I would say that for both sides a win is possible.

If you would like to know how to advance in this position for one or both sides I would suggest changing the question.

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  • Good intuition in this case. I ran an analysis Houdini 6.02 at 43/100 with high variety (40 minutes) and, after that, doing a second iterazion at a critical point. It ends in a draw. In the game, howecer, Sanikidze ended up losing.
    – Stefano
    Jul 9 at 0:40

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